Islam and the Fate of Others

The Salvation Question

Mohammad Hassan Khalil

Challenges common assumptions about the nature and limits of Islamic concepts of salvation

Islam and the Fate of Others

The Salvation Question

Mohammad Hassan Khalil

Description

Can non-Muslims be saved? And can those who are damned to Hell ever be redeemed? In Islam and the Fate of Others, Mohammad Hassan Khalil examines the writings of influential medieval and modern Muslim scholars on the controversial and consequential question of non-Muslim salvation.

This is an illuminating study of four of the most prominent figures in the history of Islam: Ghazali, Ibn 'Arabi, Ibn Taymiyya, and Rashid Rida. Khalil demonstrates that though these paradigmatic figures tended to affirm the superiority of the Islamic message, they also envisioned a God of mercy and justice and a Paradise populated by Muslims and non-Muslims.

Islam and the Fate of Others reveals that these theologians' interpretations of the Qur'an and hadith corpus-from optimistic depictions of Judgment Day to notions of a temporal Hell and salvation for all-challenge widespread assumptions about Islamic scripture and thought. Along the way, Khalil examines the writings of many other important writers, such as Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya, Mulla Sadra, Shah Wali Allah of Delhi, Muhammad Ali of Lahore, James Robson, Sayyid Qutb, Yusuf al-Qaradawi, Farid Esack, Reza Shah-Kazemi, T. J. Winter, and Muhammad Legenhausen. Islam and the Fate of Others is both timely and overdue.

Islam and the Fate of Others

The Salvation Question

Mohammad Hassan Khalil

Table of Contents

AcknowledgmentsConventions Introduction: Rethinking Our AssumptionsChapter 1: Damnation as the Exception-The Case of GhazaliChapter 2: All Paths Lead to God-The Case of Ibn 'ArabiChapter 3: The Redemption of Humanity-The Case of Ibn TaymiyyaChapter 4: The Modern Scene-Rashid Rida and BeyondGlossaryNotesBibliography

Islam and the Fate of Others

The Salvation Question

Mohammad Hassan Khalil

Author Information

Mohammad Hassan Khalil is Associate Professor of Religious Studies, Adjunct Professor of Law, and Director of the Muslim Studies Program at Michigan State University. Before returning to his hometown of East Lansing, Michigan, he was Assistant Professor of Religion and Visiting Professor of Law at the University of Illinois (Urbana-Champaign). He has published several journal articles and book chapters in the field of Islamic thought.

Islam and the Fate of Others

The Salvation Question

Mohammad Hassan Khalil

Reviews and Awards

"Khalil's volumes encourage us to perceive inter-religious dialogue on a deeper level than that of superficial do-gooders unable to understand the real difficulties of religious confrontation." --Marginalia

"Islam and the Fate of Others is a meticulous critical study of the interplay of religious supercessionism and exclusivism with religious pluralism and salvation in Islam. Mohammad Hassan Khalil mines Islamic scriptural sources and Muslim scholarship and analyzes how prominent religious scholars, past and present, have balanced religious supercessionism with a belief that a merciful God ordains that the 'righteous other' can attain salvation through other religious paths." --John L. Esposito, author of The Future of Islam

"Mohammad Hassan Khalil has offered a brilliant theological insight that escapes all radical dyads, sorting humanity into believers and unbelievers, the saved and the damned. Khalil argues for a positive ambiguity, wanting to know but not finally knowing the Will of the One, the Unseen. His is a reading of salvation as welcome as it is novel, a deeply humble reading of all Abrahamic scripture, including and especially the Noble Book, the Holy Qur'an. A wondrous, engaging book." --Bruce B Lawrence, Nancy & Jeffrey Marcus Humanities Professor and Professor of Islamic Studies, Duke University

"For those who find the question of what happens to humans after death central - as do all the traditionally understood major religions, including Islam--Mohammad Hassan Khalil's volume Islam and the Fate of Others offers a magisterial presentation and analysis of the multiple, nuanced answers of major Islamic thinkers down to the present. His is another important plank in the bridge of dialogue between Islam and Others." --Leonard Swidler, Professor of Catholic Thought and Interreligious Dialogue, Temple University, and Founding Editor, Journal of Ecumenical Studies

"Professor Mohammad Hassan Khalil is a familiar name to those of us who work in Islamic Studies. This marvelous book will bring him the wider readership that he deserves in both religious studies and comparative theology. In answering a very simple question--what does Islam say about the fate of non-Muslims?--he gives us the full measure of his erudition while examining the thought of four key Muslim scholars. He does this with an elegance that does justice to the complexities required for a complete answer." --Amir Hussain, Professor of Theological Studies and Editor of the Journal of the American Academy of Religion

"Khalil masterfully approaches a difficult topic... a superb scholarly production on all levels. Given his forthcoming edited volume and already published article in Religion Compass, moreover, he has created an important niche for himself as a rising scholar in Islamic studies. Khalil should be congratulated for his splendid achievement that is Islam and the Fate of Others. The text should be of interest to scholars of theology, comparative religion, Qur'anic studies, ethics, pluralism, philosophy, Islamic history, and Sufism." --American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences

"This excellent historical study, which also usefully draws these debates into their contemporary contexts, is an important contribution to Islamic Studies, the History of Religions, and the broad field of Interreligious/ Interfaith Studies, in looking at the way one specific tradition has, through some of its major representatives, thought about and responded to the question of religious Others in a way that is important for its own self-understanding and relationship to those Others." --Journal for the Academic Study of Religion

"...Islam and the Fate of Others is a model book insofar that it begins with a question, ends with an answer, and has much of interest in between... a lot of care has been taken in the production of Khalil's [volume] as evidenced, for example, by the copious notes, cross-references, glossaries, and indexes of Qur'anic verses. The engaging subject matter ensures that [it lends itself] to a wide readership of scholars students, and intellectuals... [The book] will not fail to impress anybody concerned with Muslim views on soteriology and religious diversity." --Journal of Shi'a Islamic Studies